B4 FIAR co-op: The Big Green Pocketbook

I love this book!  Its one of my favorites and I have such sweet memories of this with ALL of my children.  :)  Its the story of a little girl going on a bus ride to town with her mom.  While there, she collects all sorts of things to put in her pocketbook to remember her day.  This was our last co-op of the year and we chose to meet at a park again as it was best suited to the activities that we planned.

We started with reading the story.  

 Our devotion was on the fruit of the Spirit.

 And next was a surprise.  I was so excited about this.  I made "pocketbooks" for the kids!  I made green tote bags for the boys and round pocketbooks for the girls.  Here is a better shot of the girl's pocketbooks.  I found these made of sturdy chipboard at a consignment sale and painted them green.  The tote bags were sewn.

We started at at the "bus stop".  We decided to act out the story with all of the stops along the way.

 First they got in line to get their ticket.

After riding, our first stop was the bank.  Here the kids played with a fun sensory bin looking for money.

They were all excited to find money!

 Of course they had to get 2 lollipops just like in the story.  One for now and one for later.

 Next stop was the Insurance agency.  In the story, the little girl types her name on a typewriter in upper and lower case letters.

 We played games with some letters.  Each child found the letter that started his/her name to put in their pocketbooks.

 Next stop was the jewelry store.  Several activities here.  We first played a game with colors and shapes.  Each child was given 2 cards with a shape in a color.

 The child would state what they had and what they were looking for.  Example, I have an orange diamond.  Who has a black square?  This was a lot of fun.

Next they made a keychain (the girl in the story is given one) from beads and stretchy lanyards.

If you finished, there was time to play a color matching game.  Isn't this a great way to do it?

 For a treat they were given gummy rings.  Yum.

 Next stop is the dry cleaners.  In the book, the little girl is given a small calendar.  Our kids get one of those too and play a game with numbers.  We had chalk  numbers (several of each from 1-10) drawn on the ground and then the kids were asked questions varying from favorite number to age to addition problems.  It is a simple, active game.

 We next visited the five-and-ten store.  In the book, the girl and her mom buy fabric, sewing needles and a sack of gumdrops shaped like orange slices.  While at this stop, the kids were each given the first initial and then had their choice of colors in which to sew their letter.  I was amazed at how well Eliana stayed with this activity.  And yes, there were orange slices.

 Eliana loves seeing all of the goodies that she has collected in her pocketbook!

 Our last stop is the drugstore.  In the book, they have ice cream at the soda counter.  We thought this was a fabulous end to the morning!

 The kids were pretty excited about having ice cream too!

What a delightful time we had together.  More fun memories - and we are not quite finished with this book.  A field trip is coming up in the next post.  Bet you can guess what that is!

More soon.

Blessings
Leslie

May - lots of photos!

May happenings.  This month always feels so very full.  So many things are winding down and this year, it was some HUGE things.  This is Rebecca's last year homeschooling.  I remember starting with her when she was so very young and doing the picture books and acting them out, doing crafts and more.  She was always such a fun student as she is eager to learn - still is.  And as this piece of the journey comes to an end, there are lots of markers along the way.  

We took some photos with her dear friend Hanna.  These beautiful young ladies will be having their graduation together.  Seems fitting as they have done a lot of learning and playing and laughing together over the years too!

May is also the end of another year of school for Christopher.  He finished his third year at NC State.  I can hardly believe that he is a rising senior!  It has gone so quickly.  We were delighted to have some of his friends over for dinner and games.  I don't have a lot of pictures of this, but here are a few.

I am so thankful to be able to have this time with these wonderful young adults!  I hope we will be able to spend time with some of Rebecca's friends in this way too.  :)

We ended our year with our Five in a Row group with field events.  This is a fun tradition.  We played games like the 3-legged race.  

 The sack race.

 Broad jump

Softball throw

50 yard dash

And the egg and spoon race.

While they are competing, there is also a lot of time for laughter and fun.

Ribbons are awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in each event.  (By age and gender)

We also take time to honor our seniors.  We started this a few years ago when Christopher graduated.  All four of these moms have been in this spot before.  I'm not sure that it makes it any easier.  One of our friends prayed over us and I found myself with tears slipping down my face.  It just catches you off guard sometimes.  I've been doing field trips and events with this precious daughter of mine for over 18 years now.  I'm looking forward to more in the future!

 We also celebrated with cupcakes.  I made the GF strawberry ones and they were so yummy.

 Just a cute photo of my youngest - who has many more years of field trips ahead of her, but I know that those years will go quickly too.

Joshua, Isaiah and Roger went on a Civil War field trip (extended) with Roger's work and had a fabulous time.  We had fun at home while they were away too!

Once Christopher was home from taking exams, it was time to hit the beach!  I'm never sure how much time we will have to vacation together and always want to grab the time while we can.  The beach is such a fun place for all of us!  We had a delightful week there with beautiful weather and not too many people.   We enjoy playing in the sand and the ocean.  

And swimming in the pool.

Really ... all of it.  Well, maybe not the sunburn, but the rest of it.  It was Mother's Day and I wanted a picture with all of my children.  :)  

Here is one with my girls.

A round of putt putt was a fun family night!

Rebecca and some of her friends attending a homeschool dance.  

 So beautiful!  :)

 We also went to see a local theatre performance.  The musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  Rebecca loves musicals and we made this a fun night out with friends.  We went out to dinner and then to the performance.  It was great and a fun evening!

Meeting some of the actors afterwards was a neat experience too.

Also in May is our state homeschool conference.  Rebecca has been attending with me for a number of years now (since I stopped being a vendor).  She really likes going to the workshops and also hanging out with her friends.  This year was no different.  Well, that part wasn't different, but there was something new.

We did not take part in the graduation at the conference, but will be having a celebration in July with family and friends.  I only have one photo of the two of us at the conference.  Its not the best one as it is at the very end and we were both worn out.  Its a photo though that captures this memory.  :)

The last event of the month was our family outing on Memorial Day.  We went to a park to hang out and have fun.  Friends met us and it was a great day.  

 Lots of games were played.  Soccer.

 Football from the Enos.

 Kan Jam

Poleish

Food of course.

 More games.  Ultimate frisbee.

 Volleyball.

 And even some fishing.  Delightful day.  It was planned at the last minute and sometimes those are the best.  :)  Thankful for this time and this day.

 Eliana continued to play soccer this month.

 They learned some basics and mostly just had fun.

 The staff and teens that worked with this program are super!  Eliana enjoyed this and I hope we will be able to do more events like this in the future.

 A month that was full in many ways ... a busy calendar, but not so full that we didn't have time to laugh, play and spend time with friends.  Those are days well spent.

Will hopefully share next about one of my favorite co-ops and a field trip to go with it!  Then it will be on to June.  I'm just about caught up now!  I hope you are having a great summer.

Blessings
Leslie

Another gluten free menu plan

Just in case anyone wanted a peek at my menu for the week.  I know that it helps me sometimes to see what others are having when I get in a rut.  So here is what is on tap for the week.

Here are our 5 dinners.

1.  Taco pasta - This was an easy to fix meal that everyone liked.    Sides were fruit and fresh cucumbers.

2.  Baked balsamic chicken
    Roasted broccoli - maybe this recipe
    Mashed potatoes

3.  Mac and cheese - Trying a new recipe and hoping its as good as the other one.  GF mac and cheese can be very yummy!
    Kielbasa
    Salad and/or raw veggies with dip

4.  Taco Bowl - Good for a night when I have to leave early for play practice.  Everyone can fix their own dinner as they like it.  Good way to use some leftovers too.  :)
   
5.  Egg, polenta, salsa dish - polenta with a fried egg, black beans, sliced avocado and salsa on top.  YUM!  We may be having grits instead of polenta as I'm having a hard time finding that around here for some reason.

For breakfast we can have any of these options:

eggs and bacon
grits
yogurt and granola
cereal

For lunch:
hot dog and fries
quesadillas
pizza
salad
fruit
And look what I made tonight for the rest of the week!  :D  I'm really excited to try this out.   You can read more about salads in a jar here.

Last week, two of my boys made a restaurant for us to enjoy for lunch one day!  It was great.  Pretty tablecloth, placemats, menus - the whole works!  I am hoping to see this happen more often.  :)  We are working on cooking lessons a bit this summer at their request.  I love having children that enjoy food and cooking!

Hope you are off to a great start for your week.  I'll be posting the next couple of days some of my May catch-up and then its on to June.  I'm getting there and hope to be fully caught up soon!

Have a great week!

Blessings
Leslie